Production Company Behind Crypto Dating Show Raises $6 Million

Mad Realities, a production company that funded a dating reality show with cryptocurrency, has raised $6 million from investors to expand its platform, including from reality star and socialite Paris Hilton. 

The company’s first show, Proof of Love, features a bachelor or bachelorette who gets to choose from 4 eligible singles, much like a typical dating reality show. According to Fortune, the difference is that Mad Realities’ show is built around its audience, and those who pay to participate (by purchasing the company’s NFTs) get to choose who competes, be a host themselves, or put a friend on the show, depending on how much crypto they are willing to pay.

Episodes are streamed live and posted on YouTube later, and while the show itself has much lower ratings than the average network show (about 6,400 views total), it has built an avid fan base that’s willing to invest and participate, including 1,000 active members in its group chat.

The series’ title refers to blockchain lingo like “proof of work” or “proof of stake” to dictate how transactions are validated in crypto-speak. The series premiered in March and was funded with about $500,000 in sales of NFTs that represent membership to the company’s platform.

“Long term, we want this to be a decentralized media platform, where at its core we focus on shared experiences and co-creation and ownership at the community layer,” Cofounder and CEO Devin Lewtan told Fortune. “So you can imagine, like, a crypto Netflix, but every show has its own community behind it, [with] the relationship much more double-sided between the creator and the audience.”

According to Fortune, Mad Realities wants to become the “Web3 version of Netflix,” and have plans to create more content to build a decentralized media company to compete with giant streaming services and TV networks. The investors in the company’s vision include Paradigm, which was founded by Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam and Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, in addition to Paris Hilton’s media company 11:11.

“We know what is strategic and what we needed for this company, and we went and got it,” Mad Realities cofounder and CTO Alice Ma told Fortune.

The driving force behind Mad Realities, according to its co-founders, is not only creating a more decentralized media platform, but getting young people to become more invested in cryptocurrency – and they believe creating a media platform where they can participate in content creation is the key.  

“We think content is the thing that’s going to bring the next 100 million people in,” Lewtan told Fortune.